The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

You know how you just checked your email on your phone 39 times in seven minutes? You might be shocked to know that there are over 100 million people in the European Union who have never been on the Internet. Not at home, on a phone or even at a Web cafe.

Reuters cites figures from the EU’s statistical agency, Eurostat, which says the number of never-Internetters comes mostly from the Eastern and Southern parts of Europe, like Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus and Portugal. No Web access means those in poorer regions haven’t been able to take advantage of lower cost goods and services.

“For many people today it seems difficult to live without the Internet,” Eurostat said.
“However, a decreasing, but still non-negligible, part of the EU population has never used it,” it added, reporting that 24 percent of 16-74 year olds across the 27 countries in the European Union have never accessed the Internet.

In Romania, 54% of the population have never used the Internet, not once, compared to the 94% with access in the Netherlands.

Think of that next time you’re complaining that you have no signal and need to look up the name of that one guy who was in that movie about the flying dragon who sang about self-esteem.